Hunting is slowly dying off, and that has created a crisis for the nation's many endangered species
Hunting is ‘slowly dying off,’ and that has created a crisis for the nation’s many endangered species
By Frances Stead Sellers
Feb. 2, 2020 at 7:06 p.m. EST
STEVENS, Pa. — They settled, watchfully, into position — a retired couple armed with a long-nosed camera and three men with shotguns. ... Tom Stoeri balanced the hefty lens on his half-open car window, waiting to capture the Canada geese as they huddled on the frozen lake, fluttering up in occasional agitation before they launched into flight. ... A little more than a mile away, John Heidler and two friends scanned the skies from a sunken blind, mimicking the birds’ honking and hoping their array of decoys would lure them within range — until, Pachow! Pachow! Pachow! Two geese dropped in bursts of grey-black plumage, and a third swung low across the snow-streaked landscape before falling to the jaws of Heidler’s chocolate lab.
Public lands such as these at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area are a shared resource, open to an unlikely mix of hunters and hikers, birdwatchers and mountain bikers. ... “It’s a symbiotic thing,” said Meg Stoeri, Tom’s wife and fellow photographer. ... But today, that symbiosis is off kilter: Americans’ interest in hunting is on the decline, cutting into funding for conservation, which stems largely from hunting licenses, permits and taxes on firearms, bows and other equipment.
Even as more people are engaging in outdoor activities, hunting license sales have fallen from a peak of about 17 million in the early ’80s to 15 million last year, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data. The agency’s 2016 survey suggested a steeper decline to 11.5 million Americans who say they hunt, down more than 2 million from five years earlier. ... “The downward trends are clear,” said Samantha Pedder of the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports, which works to increase the diversity of hunters. ... The resulting financial shortfall is hitting many state wildlife agencies.
In Wisconsin, a $4 million to $6 million annual deficit forced the state’s Department of Natural Resources to reduce warden patrols and invasive species control. Michigan’s legislature had to dig into general-tax coffers to save some of the state’s wildlife projects, while other key programs, such as protecting bees and other pollinating creatures, remain “woefully underfunded,” according to Edward Golder, a spokesman for the state’s natural resources department. Some states, including Missouri, are redirecting sales tax revenue to conservation.
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Frances Sellers
Frances Stead Sellers is a senior writer at The Washington Post. Follow https://twitter.com/FrancesSSellers
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Funding sources. This is an argument that has been going around and around out here in the middle of the public lands region for over a decade.
One good suggestion is to allow the same kind of fees that are attached to bullets and guns for conservation to camping and hiking gear for instance. The conservationist crowd in the west has been arguing for this for some time but the states aren't into it because it gives them a circle jerk argument against predators. The tourism industry could contribute a lot, it's getting out of control in many places so a little more input from that interest, which is booming on statewide levels. Some communities are "drive-by" and get little of the tourism input but there quite the steady flow of tourists through the public lands region, more than enough to make this consideration of input toward conservation.
There are lot of wildlife species being threatened by pollution and habitat loss due to encroachment, something that needs to be on our minds.
